


Motherly Influence

by SnailSnoo (fuzzyfire123)



Series: The Pretty Okay Team of Morally Dubious Intent [3]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Dungeons & Dragons - All Media Types, Original Work
Genre: Background Poly, Background Relationships, Childhood Memories, F/F, Family, Family Fluff, Fire, Half-orc, Hobbits, Human, Magic, Magic-Users, Motherhood, Orcs, Other, Polyamory, Tieflings, good parenting, parenting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-13
Updated: 2017-02-13
Packaged: 2018-09-24 04:07:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9699944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fuzzyfire123/pseuds/SnailSnoo
Summary: "While most of the kids in the alleyways had one mother or maybe even none, Orianna had three. Each as different as they came. Maybe that’s why, when she got older, she never really felt like there wasn’t a race she couldn’t get on with. How could she not get along with so many when she grew up watching three women who had almost nothing in common get along so fabulously?"Orianna reflects on the lessons she learnt as she grew up watching her mothers.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hello there!  
> I wrote this for a long time friend about their Dungeons and Dragons character.

Orianna never had a father, so when she hung around the other kids of her neighborhood, they talked about their dads and how many jobs their fathers worked or what the men stole that day, and Orianna never really had much to say to that.

But when it came to mothers, she had maybe too much to say. While most of the kids in the alleyways had one mother or maybe even none, Orianna had  _ three _ .

Each as different as they came. Maybe that’s why, when she got older, she never really felt like there wasn’t a race she couldn’t get on with. How could she not get along with so many when she grew up watching three women who had almost nothing in common get along so fabulously?

Memories are a touchy subject at the best of times, but those memories, the memories of her mothers, could never be spoiled.

For instance when Orianna had reached eight, her human mother Samva had decided that enough was enough when Orianna had accidently set yet another quilt on fire. Samva had sat down exasperated at the table as Orianna’s half orc mother, Gegri, huffed out a laugh.

“Love, I can’t really see what’s so funny about this?” Samva said with her face buried in her hands and a stronger accent to her voice than when she is calm.

Gegri rumbled out in a deep gravely voice, “If you would let me teach magic basics to her, she wouldn’t catch fire so much.”

Samva looked up at Gegri from behind her hands. After Orianna heard the proposed magic lesson, she started jumping up and down from excitement. Her hair soon caught fire in her excitement, as per usual.

Gergi wiggled her eyebrows at Samva with a smirk as Samva glanced back and forth between the two.

“Oh, dear gods fine!” Samva exclaimed as she got up to sweep up the ashes of the quilt. “Don’t burn down anything we don’t have the coin to replace.”

From across the small house, a voice called out, “So you mean everything, Sam?”

Samva didn’t even attempt to retort to Silry, Orianna’s halfling mother, and she just kept tiredly sweeping up.

Oriana was by now at full intensity of flaming hair, she was so excited at the idea of finally getting to learn how to use magic like Gegri does.

“Hey, Sparks,” Gegri took a knee in front of the little one and smiles a slight grin. “You need to tone down the fire for a second.”

“Alright!” Orianna exclaimed as she proceeded to attempt to pat out the fire in her hair. Most of the fire stuck between her two horn nubs, not passing much farther down her head. That only happened when she got really excited, like the time Silry brought her to the bakery and let her buy anything she wanted. Silry had to make her wait outside though, because fire plus wood equals bad, but Orianna did get the cookie as big as Gegri’s head.

“Come on Sparks, we’re going out back,” Gegri said before lumbering off out of the door frame, pushing the tapestry that acts as a makeshift door out of her way.

Orianna practically tripped over herself to keep up since she was only as tall as Gegris’s legs.

When they both got outside they stood in a stone alleyway with only one opening in the long alley walls, that which was their doorway.

Gegri then moved a bit aways from their house’s door and then stood in a fighting stance. Orianna looked up at Gegri with confusion.

“Copy my movements,” Gegri huffed out as she planted her feet, one in front of the other, and kept her hands in fists in front of her chest.

Orianna nodded enthusiastically and tried to copy her Momma’s stance. After Orianna formed her stance, Gegri chuckled and leaned down to move Orianna’s arms closer to her chest.

Gegri eyed the little one up and down, “Do you feel steady?”

“Yeah!” Orianna hurriedly answered.

Orianna stared up at Gegri, but then, faster than Orianna’s eyes could comprehend, Gegri steadily struck the front of Orianna’s shins with a smooth arc of her leg and sent the little tiefling tumbling down.

“Ow!” Orianna protested as she sat up. “I thought we were gonna learn magic!”

“We are, Sparks,” Gegri said evenly. “But before you do, you need to learn how to hold your own in a fight.”

Gegri held out her hand to the small tiefling who took the hand and hoisted herself up back into a normal standing position.

“Are you in, Sparks?” Gegri grated out past her soft smile.

“Of course,” Orianna smirked as she went back into the position that Gegri showed her, this time, trying for steadiness.

* * *

 

Over the course of three locks, Orianna learnt all the basics of hand to hand combat from Gegri and Silry sometimes too, but Gegri said that some of Silry’s tactics are coward’s maneuvers. Whatever that means.

By the first day of the fourth lock, the two of them go outside as per usual. Orianna going straight into her fighter’s stance, but today Gegri unlatches two long sticks from a compartment under the roof outcropping.

Gegri comes back to stand in front of Orianna and throws her one of the sticks, which Orianna quickly catches with her improved reflexes.

“Sparks, beyond wits, fists, and the odd dagger or two, sorcerers have another weapon other than magic,” Gegri says as she twirls the staff noncommittally before driving it firmly into the cobblestone as she continues. “Their staffs.”

Orianna nodded dutifully before striking her staff into the ground as her mother had. Over time, Orianna had gotten to be much more resilient and light on her feet. She was still young and nowhere near adept, but she could at least hold her own against other kids her age.

“Once you can prove to me that you can do battle wielding only a staff, then and only then will I teach you how to master your magic,” Gegri declares her ultimatum.

Orianna grimaces as she tries to twirl her staff like her mother did, “Why do I need to learn to fight? I want to learn magic, but you keep teaching me this stuff.”

Gegri stares stoically in response before chuckling and ruffling the little one’s unruly hair, “I’ll tell you when you make it.”

“That’s so annoying! Momma, just tell me,” Orianna exclaims and then huffs, crossing her arms in a frustrated stance.

Gegri smirks, and Orianna sticks out her tongue at the half orc right as the older strikes out and arcs her staff under Orianna’s knees. Orianna tumbles to the ground losing grip of her own staff.

“Even after all these locks, Sparks,” Gegri chuckles as she twirls her staff again. “And you never learn to expect that strike.”

Orianna sighs and lies down starfish before using a kick up and standing once again in warrior’s position, ready to throw herself back into the fray.

* * *

 

After one more lock of practice, Orianna felt confident in hand to hand combat. She knew her way around daggers and knives, and even learnt how to shoot a crossbow, though Gegri didn’t really let Silry distract her with that too much. When Orianna asked Gegri why she shouldn’t use a crossbow, Gegri explained that the time it takes for casting and the time it takes to load a crossbow do not mix well.

As Orianna holds her staff in a defensive position in front of her chest, Gegri stands and then moves her right hand in a smooth clockwise circle around her torso before using her left hand to punch the air forcefully.

Right as the fist started to strike through the air, a cone of frost was expelled from the left fist.

Orianna stood stunned and now cold, since she was now dusted heavily with sharp frost. She then smirked and pulsed with flames, burning away the cold exterior in a way that made it seem as if she now steamed.

“Sparks,” Gegri spoke steadily. “I will now teach you what you have wanted to know. Ask your questions, child.”

Orianna blinked surprised before rushing at Gegri and throwing her arms around the much taller’s waist. Gegri, who expected an attack, then relaxes and rests one of her hand’s on the girl’s shoulder.

Orianna pulls back and raises an eyebrow quizzically, “Why did I have to wait ‘til now to learn magic stuff?”

The half-orc chuckles and then explains, “Haven’t you noticed how so many less things have gone up in flames? You have learnt control, Sparks. You have also learnt how not to be a useless idiot when you’re dosed with Magebane or something like that.”

“She won’t be dosed with Magebane,” The two whip around to see Samva leaning against the doorframe. “There is no possible way she will ever get in a situation where she would have to be given that dreaded potion. Gegri, don’t plant the ideas of dangerous things like that! You never know what she might do.”

Gegri rests her hand on Orianna’s head, “I don’t know, Valued. I think this one has the makings of a hero.”

Orianna’s eyes open wide as she strikes a pose, “Yeah! I’m gonna be the greatest hero, just like Momma said, right Mother?”

Samva sighs, and Gegri smirks at Orianna, “Don’t tire your Mother out to much, she has to make sure Mama doesn’t burn the house down on her dinner night.”

Silry yells out from inside the household, “I’m not going to burn down the house! That’s Sparks’s job!”

“Hey!” Orianna calls out indignantly as her two mothers outside start to chuckle good naturedly. Samva then massages her temples before returning indoors to prevent future Silry brand catastrophe.

Orianna learned so many things from Gegri, but the most important thing her half-orc mother taught her was a sense patience.

Even if Orianna never uses it.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Criticism is appreciated.  
> Hit me up with those kudos and comments! c:


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